diff --git a/.scripts/common.js b/.scripts/common.js
index 1a93fb4f07..0966c72191 100644
--- a/.scripts/common.js
+++ b/.scripts/common.js
@@ -254,6 +254,22 @@ function updatePackageVersions(tasks, packages, version) {
       }
     });
 
+    // angular & angular-server need to update their dist versions
+    if (package === 'angular' || package === 'packages/angular-server') {
+      const distPackage = path.join(package, 'dist');
+
+      updatePackageVersion(tasks, distPackage, version);
+
+      tasks.push({
+        title: `${package} update @ionic/core dependency, if present ${tc.dim(`(${version})`)}`,
+        task: async () => {
+          const pkg = readPkg(distPackage);
+          updateDependency(pkg, '@ionic/core', version);
+          writePkg(distPackage, pkg);
+        }
+      });
+    }
+
     if (package === 'packages/react-router') {
       tasks.push({
         title: `${package} update @ionic/react dependency, if present ${tc.dim(`(${version})`)}`,
diff --git a/.scripts/copy-package.js b/.scripts/copy-package.js
deleted file mode 100644
index 34e2010976..0000000000
--- a/.scripts/copy-package.js
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,12 +0,0 @@
-
-// copy the package.json to the directory to dist to publish it
-
-const fs = require('fs');
-const path = require('path');
-
-const package = process.argv[2];
-
-const srcPath = path.join(__dirname, '..', package, 'package.json');
-let packageContent = fs.readFileSync(srcPath, 'utf-8');
-
-fs.writeFileSync(path.join(__dirname, '..', package, 'dist', 'package.json'), packageContent);
diff --git a/.scripts/prepare.js b/.scripts/prepare.js
index fe17a73959..0d37e4bbce 100644
--- a/.scripts/prepare.js
+++ b/.scripts/prepare.js
@@ -113,9 +113,6 @@ async function preparePackages(packages, version, install) {
   // add update package.json of each project
   common.updatePackageVersions(tasks, packages, version);
 
-  // copy package.json to dist
-  common.copyPackageToDist(tasks, packages);
-
   // generate changelog
   generateChangeLog(tasks);